A Neo Perspective
by Kandescent Shades
Summary: Everyone has problems. Jaune's problem is that he's stubborn. And dense. Like really stubborn and dense. But maybe to salvage his failing love life, all he really needs is divine intervention. From a quirky little girl named Neo. Slight changes to canon to allow this scene to be possible.


**A/N Hi guys. This will be my first ever RWBY story, so I'm a little anxious but I feel like the best way to start off a new fandom is with a one-shot. I've been debating on ideas but I've finally settled on this one. It takes place during the 'Dance Dance Infiltration' episode but excludes Team RWBY glimpsing Neo during 'Painting the Town'. Otherwise, they would recognize her xD. Just a slight change, but I hope you guys enjoy~**

Honestly, after what felt like the thousandth time he had gotten rejected by Weiss, most people would find it logical that Jaune would just give up on her. While it was admirable to see someone be so dedicated, his pursuit for her affections was a double-edged sword; it was both annoying and a waste of time, regardless of how sweet the gesture was. That was what Jaune failed to see, or rather, he chose to deny the fact that he saw it, just like everyone else.

Jaune sighed as he walked away from the flashing lights and upbeat music of the dance. Technically, he hadn't been rejected this time, but after seeing Weiss ask Neptune to the dance, it was pretty much the same thing. He needed some fresh air.

_It wasn't bad advice,_ he thought to himself. _Pyrrha was right about being honest, I was just a bit late in acting upon it..._

He was done for the night and decided to take the elevator to his room to change. After a few moments of waiting, the doors opened and he stepped through absentmindedly.

Surprisingly, there was one other passenger aboard the elevator. A student he had never noticed before now, contentedly licking an ice cream cone. He raised his eyebrows but didn't pursue any further with his curiosity. Jaune pressed the button to close the door and awaited for the short trip to bring him to his quarters.

He couldn't help, try as he might, but cast occasional glances at his strange companion. She had vibrant pink hair on one side of her hair, and chocolate brown on the other. The white streaks embedded within the pink layers gave off a creamy look.

_I wonder who she is, _Jaune mused to himself. That was a really... unique hair scheme she was sporting. The rest of her outfit consisted of a white jacket with pink accents, brown gloves, tall white boots with sharp heels, dark brown pants and most peculiarly an umbrella with intricate designs adorned upon it. That was the most odd part since it wasn't scheduled to rain anytime soon.

A sudden tremor interrupted his thoughts. The elevator was jammed. Great.

He sighed as the intercom sounded overhead. It appeared there was slight malfunction with the system that would be fixed shortly. There was nothing he could really do except wait it out. At the very least it was quiet and relaxing in the confined elevator space.

Well... he glanced sideways.

As relaxing as it could be.

The girl who was trapped with Jaune had finished her ice cream cone daintily and adopted a bored expression. She mimicked what Jaune was doing and glanced at the only other person of interest in the vicinity. Unlike Jaune, however, she did not look away but stared straight on unblinkingly.

_Okay... _Jaune voiced mentally slightly unnerved and turned his head the other way. Unfortunately, however, having someone stare at you while you **know** someone is staring at you causes uncomfortable feelings to arise. Seeing as there was no possible harm in making some light conversation, Jaune addressed his new acquaintance.

* * *

><p>"Do you need help or is there something on my face?" Jaune asked with a small attempt at humor to break the ice. "I'm Jaune Arc, by the way." The girl blinked <em>(finally,<em> Jaune thought, relieved) and returned a small smile of her own. She enacted a small charades-esque motion which included twirling her wrists and tracing imaginary tears down her face while raising an eyebrow at him. The best he could interpret this as was, 'Why the long face?'

Jaune almost sighed again, but realized that he been sighing too much lately and decided to stop.

"Ehh, just regular adolescent stuff. You know, girl problems," he said offhandedly. The girl adopted an offended expression and huffed as she crossed her arms and looked away while leaning on the wall.

"Woah, woah! I didn't mean you, I meant someone else!" Jaune rectified quickly, hoping he sounded sincere. The girl smirked and giggled slightly. She had been joking. Great. He had to be so non-composed.

"Ha ha, very funny..." he responded and looked away. The girl shifted slightly closer to him. He looked up, (or rather down to her, since she was pretty short) and waited for her to say something. Instead, once again she made more gestures with her hands. She rolled her wrist as a way of saying, 'Elaborate for me'.

"Well... it's like an unrequited type of situation. It's mostly just my fault though... I don't know. My dad always said that all girls look for is confidence but... my friend who's a lot wiser than me, said just to be honest about my feelings. I was going to ask out the girl I liked, but she went with someone else. So here I am now," Jaune pointed out obviously, with a small chuckle. "Talking to you. Well... I kinda feel like I'm talking to myself actually... it'd be kinda reassuring if you said something, you know..."

Once again the girl blinked, and unless that punch was spiked with something funky (probably Yang, of course), he could have sworn her eye color changed.

She pulled out her scroll and typed something. Jaune read it over once she was done. He almost smacked his forehead.

'I don't like talking too much,' was what it said. He was grateful for that note. He would've never figured out otherwise.

"Well... how about you? I've never seen you around before... and you might have a better time at the dance than hanging around with me," Jaune suggested jocularly. The girl pondered briefly before typing something else.

'My name is Neo. And I think I can solve your problem.'

"Problem?..." Jaune asked out loud as he read that line. Abruptly, the elevator became operational and started moving again. However, it was reset to the ground floor and Jaune gave a sigh.

As soon as the doors opened, however, Neo pulled him outside and sprinted, dragging him behind.

For someone who was so... vertically challenged, she sure ran quickly. Her speed seemed to rival Ruby, maybe just a tad slower. Jaune looked around at the night sky and listened to the tranquil ambiance. The lake shimmered gloriously tonight.

"This is a nice view and all, Neo, but I don't understand," Jaune told the quirky girl. She pulled him forward and gestured for him to look at the lake. She elbowed him lightly after a moment of silence and her expression clearly said, 'What do you see?'

"Uhh..." Jaune trailed off awkwardly. He was usually mediocre at poetic interpretation, especially when it was currently being expected of him at this very moment. There wasn't much to see and Jaune attempted to invent some convoluted idea about what he saw in the reflection but suddenly Pyrrha's words rung in his head.

_"Jaune... you can't get it wrong if it's the truth." _

He acknowledged that she was right and decided to be explicitly honest and hope for the best. Even though his formulated answer was pretty lackluster and painfully obvious.

"Well... I see me."

He expected a sarcastic reproach. Or anything that resembled disappointment really. That seemed to be what his life revolved around.

Neo gave him a satisfied smile. From her pocket she produced a bluish-white flower. It looked an awful lot like the one he had tried to give Weiss from before. Neo twirled it in her hand deftly. Then she cast it into the lake, but before it touched the surface of the water, it shattered into glass. Jaune gave a perplexed expression but returned his gaze to Neo after she gave a quietly amused laugh. The flower was still there. She had misdirected his focus and caused some sort of illusion. Normally he would question things like this but he remained silent as he awaited for her explanation.

Neo delicately tucked the flower within the chest pocket of his suit. She then proceeded to brush off his blazer and then put her hands on her hips, voicelessly assessing his appearance with silent approval. Then she gave him an expectant look as though he was supposed to have figured something out by now. Jaune gave a momentary look back at the lake. Suddenly, it all made sense.

What Neo was trying to say was more or less what Pyrrha had said. Be yourself and be honest. No gimmicks, no false bravado. Just be you. Except Neo had told him something else in addition. The 'flower' she had tossed away. When he thought about it, that flower reminded him of Weiss. The casting away...

...was telling him he should let it go. Astonishingly, a small smile crept up on his lips. Jaune finally pieced it all together.

"You're saying that I should move on, and explore life to the fullest... that if I want to be happy, I should just be me, and let things happen naturally... right?"

He turned and saw that Neo was not paying attention to his revelation at all. He wandered over curiously to where she was kneeling and was finishing a drawing she had constructed by dragging a stick through the ground. It was a picture of a turtle. A very cute turtle, Jaune had to admit. But then Neo gave him a funny look. And another funny look back at the turtle. He pieced this together rather quickly compared to last time.

'You are painfully slow,' was what Neo basically said.

"Hey! Give me a break, already... I tried and got it eventually, didn't I?" He pouted indignantly, pretending to severely wounded. Neo rolled her eyes with a complacent smirk and made air quotes with her fingers.

'Eventually...' she mouthed satirically and Jaune frowned but quickly shook it off with a grudging smile. He appreciated the message she was trying to say, even if she didn't put it in the nicest way possible.

At the urgent tugging of his sleeve, Neo led Jaune back to the dance to face his problems like a man. He hoped that he could apply what he had learned tonight.

* * *

><p>Neo was waiting patiently outside. She tilted her head in such a way that it clearly asked, 'How did it go?'<p>

"Eh. It turned out Weiss was rejected like I was... but I sorted things out with Neptune. The guy who she asked out," Jaune added in response to Neo's confused look.

"I think they'll be fine with each other. At least I know he can't dance, right? Plus one for me," he quipped humorously and Neo rolled her eyes but smiled along.

They remained silent for a while, letting each other's company sink in comfortably. Then Jaune spoke once more.

"I had a fun time. It's mostly because of you, Neo. So thanks," Jaune offered genuinely and Neo dismissed a faint blush before it could appear and waved him off like it was nothing. But she appreciated the sentiment nevertheless.

"Man, I feel as though my team could be a dance troupe. I guess Nora really **does** know how to plan activities... I should listen to her more often..." Jaune commented, as everyone was blown away by their masterfully choreographed dance routine. He never actually thought they would be able to pull it off with a good reason to.

"Say... there are a few more songs playing... I'm not sure dancing's your thing but... would you like to dance?"

Neo smiled brightly.

It didn't last too long in reality, but it felt like a lifetime for Jaune. Meeting Neo definitely made his night. After they exhausted themselves, they sat down near the punch bowl to refresh themselves. On a sidenote, their strange pairing did not fail to attract some attention. Most of the guys in the vicinity were either curious or jealous at Jaune landing such a fine date. The several girls on the other hand, busied themselves with gossip and mixed reception arose. But Jaune couldn't really care. And neither could Neo.

"Thanks, Neo. You're a great friend. You could be a little more conversational, but I'm glad I met you today," Jaune remarked and Neo smiled. With mischief. She started leaning in closer. Jaune became extremely self-aware but closed his eyes and leaned forward slowly as well. Neo grabbed his shoulders tenderly, angling herself in. But right before their lips met-

Jaune's lips met Neo's fingers. He opened his eyes. Neo retracted with an amused expression. She then glanced at her fingers which had met with Jaune's lips and smirked. Jaune sighed, but smiled anyway.

"You're a tease, Neo," he stated and she gave a mocking look of shock.

'Moi? Never...' she expressed coyly. But then she caught him off guard with a quick peck to the cheek and stuffed something in his hand, before flirtatiously walking away, hips swinging. His face burned redder than Ruby's hair and his body temperature was almost as hot as Yang. He opened up the folded paper and read it.

**_Buy me dessert next time, and maybe you'll get a third date~_**

Below that was a scroll number he could only assume was hers. Next to it was a specified time and place. He grinned bashfully but accepted her offer.

"So who was that, lady killer?" Yang questioned playfully while swinging an arm around his shoulder. The dance was over, but there was still an afterparty. Team RWBY and his own team JNPR had wandered over to his seat.

"Yeah... she seemed... 'interesting'," Pyrrha put lightly and Jaune missed the obvious jealousy in her voice which was ever so slightly present.

"Jaune, is she your girlfriend?" Nora asked excitedly and Ren sighed while Jaune sputtered a startled response.

"Wha-WHAT? No! Nora, it's not anything like that... she's just a friend," he said clearing up the confusion.

"I would think so... no girl should have such an unrefined taste in boys..." the resident ice queen Weiss said in classic fashion. But unless that punch was spiked by Yang, was that a hint of jealousy in her voice? Jaune shook it off, attributing it to being really tired.

"It's really late, we should get going," Blake reasoned.

_Thank base god Monty for one reasonable person in the group, _Jaune thanked mentally. Sleep was a logical suggestion that would draw attention away from him.

"By the way, Jaune," Ruby addressed him very seriously gripping his shoulders tightly. Jaune wondered if he was in trouble.

"The surefire way to a girl's heart," she paused dramatically for emphasis. "Is cookies. Lots of delicious cookies."

Both Ren and Jaune gave each other a similar look of disbelief.

"Ruby, I think that's just the way to _your_ heart," Yang pointed out, making a mental memo to remedy her younger sister's misguided assumptions. Said redhead muttered defensively, "You wouldn't say that if you ate cookies more often..." Jaune patted Ruby's head, sympathizing since he also was previously misguided. Maybe they both just needed a little guidance.

"So did you get her name, Jauney-boy?" Yang asked as the eight of them walked together to their dorms.

"Yeah. Her name's Neo. Besides being a great dance partner, she helped me out a lot today. I think I'm seeing things in a new light," Jaune admitted happily. Yang adopted a similar look of mischief similar to Neo.

"Oh really? That sounds encouraging. Tell me more about your..." Yang donned her trademark shades. "Neo perspective."

And suddenly six other people could understand what Blake went through everyday.

"Oh come guys, am I right? Eh? Eh? Ehhh?" No one responded.

_"You guys are no fun... give me some points, I mean it's in the title..."_ Yang muttered hurtfully.

**A/N Indeed it was, Yang. One day, you'll get it right, I'm sure. I know it's not much, but what'd you think? I feel like it's 7 out of 10, but tell me what you guys think. I'll be writing more one-shots and full-length stories when I can. Feel free to leave a review on what you thought. Please try to phrase it appropriately. See ya~**


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